EL SALVADOR EX-GUERRILLA IN PRESIDENTIAL VOTE RUNOFF

SAN SALVADOR: A former leftist guerrilla narrowly missed victory in El Salvador’s presidency race on Sunday, and will now face a run-off vote with a conservative rival, according to official results. With 81 percent of the vote counted, ruling leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren had nearly 49 percent of the vote, just missing the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. He will now face former San Salvador mayor Norman Quijano, 67, of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance in a second round of voting on March 9, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. Quijano, who obtained nearly 39 percent of the vote, is hoping to eke out a victory with support from smaller conservative parties that did poorly in Sunday’s election.